Same Lotto Numbers Come Up Sat and Sun

The odds of the same Oklahoma Pick 3 lottery numbers coming up two nights in a row are a million to one, but that's just what happened last weekend.

The numbers 1-7-5 were selected at random both Saturday and Sunday night.

"We checked and double-checked all the procedures, and everything was done correctly. It was just one of those coincidences," Jim Scroggins, director of the Oklahoma Lottery Commission, said.

University of Central Oklahoma mathematician Larry Lucas says that on any given day, the odds of choosing the correct three numbers in the order drawn is one in 1,000. Those who select the numbers in order get a cash prize of $500.

We'd love to see your comments here! Register for a FREE membership — it takes just a few moments — and you'll be able to post comments here and on any of our forums. If you're already a member, you can Log In to post a comment.

University of Central Oklahoma mathematician Larry Lucas says that on any given day, the odds of choosing the correct three numbers in the order drawn is one in 1,000. Those who select the numbers in order get a cash prize of $500.

If you analzye this situation, you see that there is a 50% chance of this occurring every 693,147 drawings. If 30 states (it may be more) have pick 3, one would expect to see this event with a 50% every 47 years.

The laws of probability however predict that it could happen again tomorrow. Just because an event is improbable, does not mean it cannot occur.

In fact, one of the most improbable events is being born. Ignoring the probability that one's parents would meet and fall on love, every human being has beat odds of 1 in 70 trillion (roughly) to have been born at all.

Then, what would be the odds of two given states, Illinois and Iowa, to have the same Midday pick-4 numbers on a given day, in the exactly same order?

By the same math as in the article, the odds would be 1 in 100,000,000 (10,000 x 10,000).

While looking at the prediction winners page the other day, I found that the odds of 1 in 100M were actually beaten by one of LP platinum members, Bluegrass, on Monday, December 12, 2005. Congrats to Bluegrass!

Then, what would be the odds of two given states, Illinois and Iowa, to have the same Midday pick-4 numbers on a given day, in the exactly same order?

By the same math as in the article, the odds would be 1 in 100,000,000 (10,000 x 10,000).

While looking at the prediction winners page the other day, I found that the odds of 1 in 100M were actually beaten by one of LP platinum members, Bluegrass, on Monday, December 12, 2005. Congrats to Bluegrass!

Reporters like to lend an air of authority to their stories. If one wrote a story about sunrise they'd probably quote an astronomer saying the sun rises in the east. Of course there's also that story in the related stories box that says that some Oklahomans are baffled by pick 3. Clearly whoever wrote this story has a pretty poor grasp of simple math if they believe the odds of picking a particular number from 1000 choices is a million to one.

anonymous77 asked:

<< Then, what would be the odds of two given states, Illinois and Iowa, to have the same Midday pick-4 numbers on a given day, in the exactly same order? >>

It doesn't matter whether it's two states at the same time, the same state on consecutive days, or the same state on a specific date in consecutive years. If you pick something from a pool of 10,000 choices there's a 1 in 10,000 chance that it will match the result of any other pick from an identical pool. The odds of a specific number being drawn in any two drawings is (Probabilty 1 X Probability 2), which for pick 3 is 1 in a million. I would hope that's what the lottery spokesman told the reporter, and the errors in the story are strictly the result of the reporter's inability to understand simple math, but the bit about testing theprocedures makes me wonder. Maybe the claim is just a dog and pony show for the players who don't have a clue and think there's something wrong whenthe same numbers come up, but if the people running lotteries understand their line of work they should expect it to happen about every 1000 drawings and accept it as a completely normal occurrence.

Then, what would be the odds of two given states, Illinois and Iowa, to have the same Midday pick-4 numbers on a given day, in the exactly same order?

By the same math as in the article, the odds would be 1 in 100,000,000 (10,000 x 10,000).

While looking at the prediction winners page the other day, I found that the odds of 1 in 100M were actually beaten by one of LP platinum members, Bluegrass, on Monday, December 12, 2005. Congrats to Bluegrass!

Litebets is correct, Illinois and Iowa use the same results. Those who post predictions for both Iowa and Illionois are essentially placing a "double bet" on those numbers (twice the "risk"), but if they hit, they get twice the reward.

Another thing about the IL/IA numbers is the payout. It is Illinois who draws the numbers but Iowa has higher payouts on them. $1.00 pick 3 str in IL pays $500. and in IA it pays $600. $1.00 pick 4 str in IL pays $5,000 while in IA it pays $6,000.